Monika Maeckle is a butterfly evangelist, caterpillar wrangler, Master Gardener, Monarch tagger and curious student of nature who loves the whole life cycle. You can reach her at butterflybeat@gmail.com.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Birthdays are as much about reflection as celebration. Looking back on our first year as the Texas Butterfly Ranch, it’s curious to see what readers read the most. Read on for a recap of the most widely read blogposts of our first twelve months.

For those of us who cultivate Monarch and Queen caterpillars, it’s supremely disappointing to bring a happy milkweed plant back from the nursery to feed future butterflies only to have the caterpillars drop dead the next day from ingesting leaves containing pesticides. Our guide to local area nurseries that carry pesticide-free milkweed will be updated soon, but appears to have served an unmet need by providing names, addresses and phone numbers of Austin and San Antonio nurseries that offer worthy caterpillar food.